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Ugh. Normally, I would think it was adorable how much they obviously love each other. Now? It’s sickeningly cute, mainly because I’m super fucking jealous.
Clearing my throat, drawing their attention back to me, I ask them with a desperate edge to my voice, “Can you help me find him?” Shannon just said she goes back to Sombra for the healer. I lift my eyes, meeting Malphas’s hypnotic gold ones. “Can you make one of those portal things to bring me to Sombra?”
I just need to get to the other world. Once there, I can start searching for my demon, but it’s pointless to even try if I’m stuck on the other side of some veil that shouldn’t even exist.
“If my mate allows it,” Malphas says solemnly.
“Hell, yeah,” Shannon answers. “Who are we to stand in the way of true love, right? I mean, if it was Glaine, I might think twice, but Sammael seems alright to me. Come on.” She nudges Malphas, then grins over at me. “What are we waiting for?”
The answer to that, it seems, is nothing.
Unlike me, who overthinks everything and has to come up with a plan even when I’m acting impulsively, Shannon truly is impulsive. Once Malphas agrees to open a portal, she points at the space right in front of her and says, “Chop, chop, Mal. Portal us up, would you, babe?”
“As you wish,” is his response before the big demon waves his red hand, forming a hole right where she wanted.
It’s different. I don’t see the flames that were visible in Loki’s, only deep black shadows, but Malphas and Shannon both assure me that this will work.
I only just met them. I want to believe them… and I end up doing so, only going after Shannon hops in, big belly and all, before Malphas brings up the rear.
My first reaction is to think that they opened up a portal straight into an oven; if not that, this is truly Hell. I mean it. The air is so hot, it hurts to breathe at first, and everything seems to have a dusty tinge of red to it. The ground is soft, and when I look down to see why it’s shifting beneath my weight, I notice that it’s because it’s freakingash.
My mom smoked before she passed. I know what ash looks like.
The air smells like it, too. A mix of cigarette and rotten eggs, I cough, then groan when the heat nearly scorches my lungs.
Shannon pats me on the back. “Welcome to Sombra, Hope. Don’t worry. You get used to it.”
What a lovely thought.
As I get my coughing under control, I look around. It’s darker here, dimmer than the human world, and I guess that’s because it is a shadowy realm. Squinting, hoping my eyes don’t dry out, I begin to see the various different buildings surrounding us.
It looks like Malphas’s portal has dropped me off right in the middle of some village square.
“This is Nuit,” he says, answering the question I didn’t even get to ask yet. “This is my clan.”
Is it Sammael’s? The only thing I remember him mentioning is Mavro and the School of Mages which is just another reminder that I don’t know him. Not really.
But I was supposed to get forever to learn him—and that’s exactly what I plan on having.
And, just when I turn to get my bearings, trying to figure out what my next move is going to be, a high-pitched female voice calls out.
“Shannon! What are you doing here? I thought you weren’t due to come back and see the healer for another cycle!”
I turn around, but Malphas is standing right in front of me. I can’t see around him, though I do hear Shannon chuckle, then say, “Hey, Kennedy. I brought company.”
“Company?”
I guess that’s my cue.
I step out from behind Malphas’s bulk. I see another human woman, with a heart-shaped face, wavy brown hair, and a belly much smaller than Shannon’s.
When she sees me, Kennedy gasps.
I wave. “Hi. I’m Hope.”
Shannon jerks her thumb at me. “She’s Sammael’s mate.”
Because I am, aren’t I?
